NYCC 2016: Shin Godzilla Premiere 

So Anthony was gracious enough to get me an invite to see the U.S. Premiere of Shin Godzilla, as I was in town for New York Comic Con on this fabulous Wednesday, October 5th. As a Godzilla fan, how was I going to turn down such an invite? I didn’t. Plus I had nothing better to do. I could roam the streets of NY or go shopping at Midtown comics.. oh wait, I did do those things before heading to the Godzilla premiere.
The premiere was at the AMC 25 off 42nd Street and the line quickly grew with Godzilla fans, which there was no one in line around 5:00 so I decided to hike the mile back to the hotel to drop off my Midtown goodies. When I got back around 5:40, there was around 30 people in line. 
 

These guys and fans were rocking their best Godzilla shirts.
Entering the show, the first 75 or so people in line got a sweet Shin Godzilla shirt. Sadly they were out of S or XS as I wanted one for my 10 year old Godzilla fan back home, but they only had L or XL. I just went with the XL so it will shrink down to a L for myself. I guess the kid can have it when it’s all nice, worn and faded, becoming a classic shirt for him to adorn in about 10 years. I did manage to snag him a mini movie poster though.
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Of course someone has to be in costume at an event like this. A fan having fun with Godzilla at the theater entrance.

I’ll apologize for the craptastic pictures. My camera phone was acting up all day, so you get what you get.  
Quickly grabbed my seat before the theater filled up in the hour or so, as the show was to begin at 8PM EST. A few minutes, they came out and welcomed everyone for coming and the show started.
As expected, Japanese style opening, all in Japanese words with that classic old style music to begin the movie. I’m gonna try and not do any spoilers or provide too many details of the movie itself, but I wouldn’t read any further if you don’t want to know anything about the movie.
The movie started with action from the get go but soon after it jumped to that old Japanese Godzilla style movie. If you want nothing but action and all Godzilla scenes, this is not the movie for you. This was a very old school style Godzilla film, like the originals. Lots of dialogue and of course they all spoke Japanese, so subtitles were a must for us Americans. It would quickly flip from actor to actor, very fast paced. 
This was pretty much a new origin story. Godzilla is not what Godzilla looks like to begin with, he actually evolves during the movie to his final form we all love, except what appears to be a longer tail from what I recall on most of the other 30 or so movies. Godzilla is no savior either, like the 2014 action flick, he’s pure monster, destroying Tokyo with an unknown reasoning, which we really never learn in the movie. My only take is, he’s just like every other life form, survival of the fittest is his goal. I’ll let you judge for yourself.
Godzilla appeared to be all CGI, I might be wrong but honestly, some parts most would claim are really cheesy but I loved it. It took me back in time when I first watched the classics growing up. It was serious but silly at the same time. I did love some of the stills they created during the movie, with Godzilla sort of glowing red, radioactive and all. Some I feel will rip the new powers Godzilla is equipped with, but I thought it was great, fun and entertaining. The ending of course leaves the door open to new movies, so we can look forward to those hopefully in the near future.
I fear many casual viewers will end up not liking or enjoying this new take on Godzilla. I say this because it’s around 80% non action and no Godzilla. It’s the political side of how Japan deals with this giant monster. I must say though, I laughed more than I thought I would. So if you like dialogue, don’t mind reading subtitles and love Godzilla, especially in the classic sense, this movie is for you. If you’re wanting the huge blockbuster Godzilla like we saw in 2014, skip this one, it’s not for you.
The other highlight of the night, Besides seeing this movie before anyone else in the U.S., was apparently Finn Wolfhard and Caleb McLaughlin from Stranger Things are Godzilla fans. They were both in attendance tonight. I got the pleasure to tell them I love their show Stranger Things. 
Again, sorry for the crappy pictures, the background lighting was super bright and my auto flash wasn’t doing it’s thing for some odd reason to drown out the background lighting. 

See whoever’s in NY for the Con starting tomorrow and this weekend.